Yoga, anyone?
A barrister recently bemoaned the latest wellbeing initiative at her Chambers – Wednesday night yoga.
So under the cosh was she with her workload that she simply didn’t have time for a mid-week class. Nor any of her own hobbies, her friend and family, or even her own preferred stress-busting exercise, running, for that matter.
Initiatives with bite
What she really needed was her Head Clerk to somehow transform into a human shield to create some meaningful distance between her and the incessant demands of professional solicitor clients, and to help ease the overwhelming expectations of her unanswered inbox at risk of implosion, need to be in too many places all at once, and deadlines for work required yesterday, never mind today.
Sound familiar? I suspect we’ve all been there at one time or another in our legal careers.
Pandemic Impact
Post-pandemic, the almost seamless transition within the legal profession to flexible, remote working has led ever more so to the era of the “always on” culture, so inextricably linked with the seemingly intractable billable hour.
Stress and Overwhelm within the legal profession
Consequently, increased productivity brings an associated decrease in wellness, as overwhelm and burn-out become much more heightened and real.
The Barristers’ Working Lives Survey 2021 found that
- Over a 1/3 (35.1%) of barristers surveyed indicated they currently had a low level of overall wellbeing
- Fewer than half (45%) of respondents reported they were managing their workload, and
- Over a third (35%) indicated they weren’t coping with their workload.
Female barristers and criminal practitioners were disproportionately affected, with around 50% of them reporting low levels of overall wellbeing.
A recent Young Bar survey said 1 in 6 were thinking of leaving because of issues relating to their wellbeing stemming from the long working hours and lack of life balance.
Nor are Solicitors immune: 2023 saw a 24% rise in calls to the Lawcare helpline from lawyers experiencing stress. A recent Linkedin post went as far as to claim that 60% of legal professionals feel overwhelmed or exhausted
Burn out beyond law
More widely too, employee concerns around wellbeing in the UK have risen by 88% between 2022-2023 according to the Access Group HR and Payroll Guide to Workplace Wellbeing. The effect on businesses of poor wellbeing at work e.g through stress and burn-out are well documented.
- A Willis Tower Watson Study showed that over ¾ of US workers say they have experienced emotional distress due to work pressures in the preceding 12 months (76%), and more than half (51%) of those said that that distress was severe enough to impact their ability to do their job well.
- The American Psychiatric Association reported that unresolved depression accounts for a 35% reduction in productivity.
- A Gallup Workplace Wellbeing Survey revealed the $322 billion of turnover and lost productivity cost globally due to employee burnout
Meaningful Solutions
A front of house bowl of fruit or flyer about the next meditation course aren’t really the things likely to make any real difference given the magnitude of the challenges, as well-intentioned as those introducing them might be.
Suggesting to junior team members that there is no expectation to answer emails out of hours on non-working days or holidays, only to send mandatory wellbeing questionnaires at 11pm at night, (without utilising the delayed send facility), requiring a response from all recipients by 8am the following day, play right into the problem.
Difficult Conversations, Capacity and Workload
We’re talking here about having hard conversations about difficult things, like capacity and workload, and setting in place meaningful boundaries that not only others but you yourself respect. And leading by example, of course.
Organisational Wellbeing Focus, Retention and Sustainability
Where to start? Of course, there may be the occasional need for one-off teambuilding-style wellness events.
Better still though, focussing on how to retain talent in a sustainable way will expose more effective, meaningful, wellbeing initiatives: We need to walk our talk. For example, policies on bullying, harassment and discrimination; parental leave; and menopause.
Additionally, organisational success is likely to improve where wellbeing solutions have measurable results, for example, by linking them to data collected through employee engagement surveys/ feedback and making them bonus driven.
People before profit
More challenging, is the approach to profit, and the metrics behind that.
Whilst larger firms continue to demonstrate they are heavily wedded to the billable hour and, arguably, a “profit v. people” approach, there are green shoots of change in some smaller firms turning the traditional business model on its head. No chargeable time or targets at Rook Irwin Sweeney LLP and Thrive Law, for example, where instead trust is at their core.
Change, like charity, starts at home
Beyond the corporate machine, we can all play our part. The legal profession’s culture can only change with a groundswell of action and buy-in from the lawyers within it.
So what can we do, as individuals, to become transformation catalysts ourselves?
7 Steps to Wellness Success
Workplace Wellbeing: 7 Steps to Wellness Success is a new, online course showing participants how to achieve individual wellness success in the hopes that, consequently, this will trickle persuasively down into organisations. It shares theory AND proven methods by which to take action by implementing result-based practical coaching strategies, tools and exercises, for improved wellbeing outcomes, both personally and professionally.
For good reason, on aeroplanes, we fit our own oxygen masks first. Course participants will find ways to…
- Clearly identify their biggest wellbeing challenges
- Set goals to positively influence their short and longer-term wellness at work
- Create a workplace wellbeing strategy to implement positive, sustainable change
- Use a 7-step formula for improved wellness success at work
Workplace Wellness is the course that acknowledges that prioritising our own wellbeing is a necessity, as opposed to a selfish luxury, with a particular focus on goal setting, developing healthy habits and boundaries, and mindset.
It’s not possible to pour from an empty cup.
What one action will you take, TODAY, to replenish yours?
For more information on Workplace Wellbeing: 7 Steps to Wellness Success please use the following link: https://nikki-alderson-coaching.thinkific.com/courses/workplace-wellbeing-7-steps-to-wellness-success
Nikki Alderson Biography
Nikki Alderson, specialist coach, speaker and author, and former Criminal Barrister with 19 years’ experience:
- supports organisations, law firms and barristers’ Chambers to retain female talent; and
- empowers female lawyers to achieve career ambitions.
Nikki specialises in 3 areas:
- Women’s leadership;
- Enhanced career break returner support; and
- Workplace resilience, confidence and wellbeing.
She is the author of Amazon No.1 Bestseller Raising the Bar: empowering female lawyers through coaching, (https://amzn.to/3fodKQX) nominee for the Inspirational Women Awards, Champion of the Year Category and finalist in the 2020 Women in Law Awards, Legal Services Innovator of the Year and 2019 International Coaching Awards, International Coach of the Year Category.